Goa parties suggest machine and manual counting ‘on 11 March

Goa, the first in many experiments of Election Commission of India, may have one more experiment of having cross-check double counting, if it accepts a suggestion made by Goa’s political parties.

A delegation of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party has suggested that counting be held of Electronic Voting Machines as well as of the VVPAT slips on 11th March.

Goa’s election office has accordingly convened an all-party meeting tomorrow morning in view of the meeting the three-member delegation of Congress and the NCP had with the three commissioners today morning.

The delegation, consisting of AICC secretary Girish Chodankar, NCP leader Avinash Bhosle and Congress Mormugao candidate Sankalp Amonkar, also raised other issues discussed at the all-party meeting held last week.

“While questions are being raised over the authenticity of EVMs all over the country, we told the Commission that Goa is the best opportunity to prove how authentic the EVMs are”, said Chodankar.

They have suggested that counting be held by taking voting figures from the EVMs as well as the manual count of VVPAT slips and tally it.

“It would help in strengthening the trust voters have posed in EVMs but suspicion is raised by the politicians, especially after Maharashtra elections”, said Adv Bhosle.

Goa was the first state where the paper slips dropped with candidate’s name the voter had voted for, after pressing the EVM button. These slips get stored in the sealed boxes.

The delegation, at a one-hour long meeting, also demanded a repoll at the booths where military personnel were allowed to vote without following proper procedures.

“Neither these voters were registered after cross-checking their voting at their respective native places nor the candidates were allowed to meet them for campaign”, observed Chodankar.

Similarly, the delegation put forth another demand of the all-party meeting of scrapping the 35-day long postal ballot and hold fresh voting on one day.

The delegation alleged that the marked electoral roll of service voters was leaked to the ruling BJP while the serial numbers were also leaked out.

Questions were also raised regarding the huge amount of expenditure, between RS 40 to 57 crore, with miscellaneous expenditure of around Rs 10 crore, by the local election office in Goa.

Though the Commission had called all the parties to Delhi, only two parties could actually make it for the meeting.

Accordingly, the Goa election office has now been told to meet all the parties tomorrow, as a follow-up of today’s meeting.

Counting must be held of Electronic Voting Machines as well as of the VVPAT slips on 11th March. Taking strong example of recently held Mumbai Municipality election where one independent candidate got Zero votes! Is it possible to get Zero vote? A big NO. He including his family, relatives, neighbors and friends has voted him then where that votes gone? This can be happen in Goa and hence counting must be done in both EVM as well as of VVPAT Slips.